Bill Bangs For The Bucks?
Written: May 14 '03 (Updated May 14 '03)
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Pros: Great deal for the price...
Cons: Windows XP makes you feel like a Microsoft XPrisoner...
The Bottom Line: Great piece of equipment for the price, only Bill's end of the bargain is not what you'd expect...
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| lansky2000's Full Review: eMachines T1842 PC Desktop |
My first computer guru told me that a hard drive was kinda like a floppy disk in that, like all other magnetized disks, they eventually fall victim to the polarization of the earth. It made sense to me, having left a fair share of disks and tapes near magnetized devices that left me with zippo. Having had my original Pentium-class Frankenstein monster for over four years of college, I decided that its decreasing efficiency was a sign that it was time for a change. The missus decided to splurge, and I was blessed with a new desktop a few weeks back. Only the union between Emachines and Microsoft may not exactly be a marriage made in heaven.
The Emachines product in itself is everything you can expect from a new computer. Its 1.80 GHz Intel Celeron Processor fulfills your need for speed. There's a 48x Max Read CD-ROM that will handle most anything you may want to check out, from college text CD's to most gameware applications. You've also got your 3D Intel Extreme Graphics AGP that won't leave your gameplaying capabilities out in the cold. The 56k Fax Modem is also capable of handling a hard day's work, and you've even got an 10/100Mbps Ethernet that'll get you hooked up to Broadband Cable DSL.
Now we hit the hard spot. There's six USB ports, two in front, four in back, that suggest lots of good stuff but wind up as scathing indictments of the Bill Gates Microsoft Empire. Unless you buy by the book (according to what the XP program does or doesn't take), you are going to find lots of good stuff that is not compatible to your new Emachine. My Canon 2110 printer was one of my new toys that was not recognized by XP. Neither was my scanner. I surfed the Net desperately for hackers' schemes to trick this baby into compliance, but no such luck. Either you pay to play with Billy Boy or you don't play at all.
The worst is yet to come for us writer types. Windows XP has replaced MS Word with MS Works, a garbage program with half the capability of Word. Worse still, it will not read Word documents and vice versa. What this means is that anything you write up in WPS will not be downloadable by anyone using Word, which is about 75% of the planet. Of course, you can *buy* Word for XP for about $300, which doubles what you thought you got over for on the bargain Emachines price.
Funny how time and money can change people over the years. Bill Gates will forever be remembered as the man who put a PC and a user-friendly operating system in every home. Now, however, in a brazen attempt to wipe out the competition despite the badgering of the Supreme Court, he has further subjugated PC users around the globe along with faithful Windows users in the process.
I'm hoping Dell, Apple, and other conglomerates get together and tie a can to this man's tail. Even ISP's like Earthlink (who gave us the scanner and printer that are useless to XPers) can join a coalition to end this monopoly. There's enough people who's had enough, and a strong backlash can cause this tyrant a world of hurt.
At any rate, Emachines has a good deal for people looking for a quality PC at a bargain price. As for XP, well, see about installing an older version of Windows, or you're liable to be bargain-cruising for a bruising.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 330
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Celeron
Processor speed: Don't Know
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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Epinions.com ID:
lansky2000
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